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It all started out confusing, and I am still confused to this day.
At the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, we were told it was recommended to wear a mask.
Then, depending on where you lived and government regulations, it became mandated in particular environments.
Now, as far as I can tell, 'cause the rules seem to keep changing whenever, however, wherever, you don’t have to wear one if you don’t want to, but you can if want to with little to no guidance of where to draw the line of should I wear it or do I wear it or what?!
I’ll be honest: When my area was on high alert, and it was in the recommended status, I was a pseudo mask police and social distancing advocate in my mind. I was also a hypocrite 'cause when I went to the gym during off-hours, I would run on the treadmill without a mask and decided to take my chances.
I can barely breathe when I run without a mask, so I could only imagine wearing one and lacking oxygen, passing out, and flying off the machine.
That was the only environment that I chose not to wear a mask, but everywhere else, I was strict about my decision to wear one.
I recall waiting for the elevator, and when it opened to a crowded group of young folks, all maskless, stuffed in like sardines, I hesitated to step in.
One of the guys said, “You might want to wait for the next one.”
I felt like saying, “Yeah, maybe I should since all of you are young and dumb.” But I didn’t. I simply said, “I’ll take the stairs.”
Then I was in the grocery store, and the rules were that you had to wear a mask and socially distance, and I remember waiting in line, standing on my designated place with an X on the ground, and this young girl with a cropped USC t-shirt and tight leggings was standing in line between two Xs.
She was basically standing right behind me on her phone and headphones, completely ignoring the social-distancing mandate, and I was like, do I say something? Should I just let it go? Should I go to the back of the line and start over? I was annoyed and confused as to why she was standing carelessly and quite frankly disrespectfully behind me. But I let it go.
Then things got really confusing when people started getting vaccinated, and the new recommendation was if you’ve been vaccinated, you don’t have to wear a mask, and the rest of you who have not been vaccinated, please wear a mask and practice “the honor system.”
What the heck was that? The honor system? Like I am supposed to trust that everyone not wearing a mask is somehow going to adhere to this blind system?
That was by far the most outlandish and confusing phase in the multiple phases we have had to endure on mask-wearing.
So now I am stuck in yet another level of this mask debacle nightmare.
Currently, where I live in DTLA, you do not have to wear a mask if you don’t want to. Yesterday, I was walking down the street and watched the pedestrians walk by, and it was more or less a 50-50 breakdown of people wearing a mask and people not wearing a mask.
When I initially left my place, I put it on. Then, when I started seeing people without it, I took it off. Then, when I walked through heavier crowds of people half wearing it and half not wearing it, I put it back on.
When I got to the store, the previous rules were no longer intact, and you didn’t have to wear them, and when I entered the doors, it was the same half-and-half situation. I wasn’t sure what to do except play it safe (I guess) since it is an indoor environment, so I put my mask back on.
As I shopped around, I began to feel another emotion. When I was near a maskless person, I felt slightly uncomfortable, like I’m on team "you have to wear a mask, so why are you not wearing it?" despite the latest lifted rules. Or, I am not vaccinated (when I am), so I am practicing the honor system, which, as I mentioned, is ridiculous.
At the start of this whole shebang, there seemed to be a mask war going on where you basically had two teams: team "wear a mask" and team "I’m not going to wear a mask."
I still feel that war is going on today, even though you don’t have to wear one—it’s a personal choice—but if you are wearing one, you might be considered part of team "wear a mask." And if you are not wearing a mask, you’re on the other side of the spectrum.
Either way, there could be innate feelings of judgment going on from both sides, which amounts to a weird social divide.
When I got on the elevator today, I was the only one wearing a mask, and I felt this tension (this could all be in my mind, but I don’t think so), 'cause I am thinking to myself: Do they think I am annoyed I am stuck in an elevator with a maskless group of people? Or do they think I’m not vaccinated and adhering to the honor system?
I don’t know. The number of thoughts and outcomes to the current do-whatever-you-want-to system cause a continuum of confusion, which can amount to making our social exchanges in our environments awkward.
Whether you decide to wear a mask or not, that’s up to you. It’s a free county, and people should do what they want. I just hope the psychological confusion and social ramifications of this invisible line somehow find a way to end.
